Splinters, Part 2: Conquered
by PkmnLegacy
Summary: The Association is being taken over from within. Meanwhile, Team Rocket and the dexholders find themselves fighting on the same side for once. How long can such an alliance last? Will the dexholders manage to get out of this one, or will they fall with the Pokemon Nation sliding into darkness along with them? (Please read Part 1 first)
1. Chapter 1

_Two weeks after the events of Part 1..._

Red handed the binoculars to Gold, who was sitting next to him. The younger boy took them without a word, then watched the road below for a long time.

"Well, the convoy is there," he said. "Just like they said it would."

"You sound hesitant," Red remarked. "Think it's a trap?"

"I trust Blue and Silver, but... The rest of Team Rocket? Not too sure."

"We're both against the Association at this point. No reason for them to betray us."

"Right. We help them, they share info. Got it."

He handed the binoculars back to Red. They sat there in silence, while Red kept watching the convoy on the road below.

"Alright," Gold said. "Team Rocket are down below, see? We should move in."

"Yeah, just let me... Wait. Is that-"

* * *

"Green!" the convoy commander yelled. "Keep yer head down!"

"Why?" the younger trainer asked. "The air in the vehicle is horrible, and we haven't been attacked yet. You act like you're _expecting_ an attack at any moment."

"Can never be too careful."

"Whatever," Green sighed, looking down into the vehicle. "You okay down there?"

"Yeah," Emerald replied. Green frowned. The kid had been even more silent than usual lately. Perhaps the death of Ruby had affected the young boy more than he thought. Just one more reason to get him back home to the calm of Viridian City. He could not wait to get back himself, having been forced into security detail by the Association to prove his loyalty. He still steamed with anger when thinking about how they had simply called him and told him to expect a cab to pick him up within the hour. Suddenly, an alarm sounded.

"Enemy presence!" someone yelled. "Team Rocket attackers!"

Swearing, Green looked around to find where the attackers were coming from. The trucks they were protecting were filled with dangerous materials that could absolutely not be allowed into Team Rocket hands.

"Commander!" he yelled. "Where are the enemy coming from?"

"Below!" the older man shouted back. Green frowned, then looked at the ground below. It was cracking right in front of him. _Of course, _he thought to himself. _Giovanni is a ground-type master, I should have seen this coming!_

* * *

"It _is_ good to be in the field again," Giovanni said as his Pokemon tunneled up through the cliff road, disabling vehicles and knocking out guards as they surfaced. When most of the Association guards were out, he climbed over the edge of the cliff, followed by Surge, Silver, Blue and several dozen elite soldiers.

"Surrender and you'll be spared!" Surge yelled at the remaining enemies. The road here was as wide as three vehicles, and they spread out between the cliff and the convoy. Blue felt her eyes widen in shock as she saw Green sitting on the roof of one vehicle, but avoided his eyes as if to shield herself from his judgment.

"I am the commander here," one of the Association troops said, pointing at his rank insignia. "You are violating the law, and I am hereby placing you under arrest."

"You may not have noticed, _commander_, but you're heavily outnumbered," Surge laughed.

"Are we?" the commander replied, thumping one of the cargo trucks with his fist. Dozens of soldiers emerged, dressed in full battle suits and with belts filled with powerful Pokemon. Giovanni, who had been far more observant than Surge, grabbed his second-in-command by the collar and started pulling him along even as the Team Rocket forces took up defensive position between their leaders and the unexpected enemy reinforcements.

"Silver, Blue, follow me," Giovanni told them, indicating for Surge to do the same. "We need to get to higher ground."

While the soldiers had come out of the trucks further down on the steep road, only two guards were above them. Giovanni and Surge made quick work of the duo, while Blue and Silver hurried on ahead to make sure no enemy had hidden further up the road.

"Clear!" Silver yelled. His father and Surge rushed up behind them, along with three of the most elite Team Rocket soldiers. Most of the force they had initiated the assault with followed them in a controlled retreat.

"Surge, tell the rest of our troops to move in and attack from behind," Giovanni ordered. "Once surrounded by our men, the Association will stand no chance."

"Dad, Green and Emerald are approaching!" Silver said, gritting his teeth. The two dexholders had somehow gotten past the Team Rocket force and were charging up the mountain road to catch up with the small group.

"Sir," Surge said, removing two grenades from his belt. "Shall I-"

"You promised not to kill them!" Silver snarled at his father. Giovanni hesitated, then turned to Surge.

"Give diplomacy a chance, first," he said. Surge looked angry, but did not protest.

"Guys!" Blue yelled to her two friends below. "Please, just surrender and-"

She did not get further than that before the closest convoy vehicle exploded in a sea of fire, shredding much of the closest Team Rocket force and turning the world into one of dust and falling rocks.

* * *

Red's mouth fell open as much of the mountain below them collapsed down on the road and mountainside below, cutting Giovanni, Surge, Green, Blue, Silver, Emerald and a couple of Team Rocket members off from the main battle.

He had been unsure if they should enter such chaos, but now he motioned Yellow and Crystal forward as Gold got to his feet beside him.

"We have to get down there," Gold urged him.

"I know, I know!" Red replied. He was not sure what the four of them could do in that particular situation, though. Not for the first time that day, he was beginning to wonder if leaving the Sinnoh holders out of this one had really been a good idea.

"Everyone ready?" he asked. The three others nodded. As an afterthought, he gave Yellow a quick but passionate kiss before they all used their flying Pokemon to plunge towards their group of friends below.


	2. Chapter 2

"We have to get out of here!" Silver urged his father. "Our forces are too evenly matched, the Association will come soon!"

"We _have_ to get the contents of those trucks!" Surge countered, giving the young redhead an angry look. "If we don't-"

"If we die, we won't get another chance," Giovanni interrupted. "Silver is right, we can't even see the battle now that this rock slide has cut off the road."

"Surrender!" someone yelled from further down the road. The four of them turned to see Green and Emerald emerge from the dust and smoke that was still covering their sight of the fighting. Seconds later, Red, Yellow, Gold and Crystal landed next to the small Team Rocket group.

"You too?" Green said, looking at Red, the hurt in his eyes and voice unmistakeable.

"Green, you're outnumbered, do _not_ follow us," Blue said, causing the young gym leader to turn his eyes to her. "Please."

"We don't have time for this," Giovanni sighed, letting his Beedrill out of it's Pokeball. "Stand down!"

"Dad, no!"

"Make me!" Green snarled, throwing his arms out. The Beedrill shot forward, arm stinger ready to strike, but Silver intercepted it. He grabbed the stinger, flinging the Pokemon aside, stumbling...

"No!" Giovanni gasped, raising his Pokeball to recall the Beedrill. It was too late. They all watched in horror as the redheaded son of Team Rockets leader staggered back, blood streaming from a large hole in his chest. Even Green stopped his forward motion, watching the events unfold with his mouth hanging open.

"Silver!" Blue shrieked, rushing forward to catch her friend as he fell. Giovanni seemed to have frozen in place, unable to move, unable to comprehend what he had just done. None of them noticed that the sounds of battle was slowly dying down on the other side, although there was still too much dust in the air to see who was the winner.

"Sir, we should move," Surge told his boss. To his horror, Giovanni just shook his head.

"N-no, I can't..."

"Sir!"

"I killed my own son," Giovanni whispered, his voice broken. Blue was sitting on the ground, cradling Silver's lifeless body. "I didn't... I can't."

"If you surrender, I promise he will be treated with respect," Green said quietly. "I'll do my best to personally ensure that."

"Yes..." Giovanni said, giving him a thankful look.

"You would betray us?" Surge snarled. "We never fall! You said that!"

"That was before-"

"Before what? We agreed to stop this at _all costs_!"

"Stand down," Green said, taking a step closer to Surge. The electric trainer took one look of him, then sprang back, calling out his Raichu. Green responded by letting his Scizor out, but Surge went for Giovanni instead, impaling him with his Raichu's tail.

"What?" Giovanni said, looking at Surge. His eyes were wide with shock.

"I'm assuming command of Team Rocket," Surge said, letting the corpse of his former leader fall from the edge of the cliff road. "Rough times calls for a strong leader, after all."

The dexholders around him all prepared for combat, but the chance never came. Dozens of Team Rocket commandos climbed over the rocks behind Green and Emerald, rushing to attack.

"They killed Giovanni and Silver!" Surge shouted. "The Blue girl is with them! Kill them all!"

The Team Rocket elites charged at the dexholders, more joining them every minute. Green weighed his options for a couple of seconds, then ran aside, taking Blue by the arm and yanking her away from Silver. Emerald followed him as he rushed to join the others, while Surge stood aside, letting the first wave of Team Rocket soldiers pass.

The seven dexholders were stronger one-by-one than the Team Rocket elites. However, Blue was clearly unable to fight, Green had to pull her along, and they were hopelessly outnumbered. Unwilling to fly away while Surge was behind them, electric Pokemon ready to strike at any flying-type, they started running up the slope.

Red and Gold took position as a rear guard, but it was difficult to fight multiple opponents while fleeing from them. Emerald was riding his Sceptile to be able to keep up, so he could not help defending. Yellow was helping Green with Blue, and Crystal was one step ahead of the rest of the group, making sure nothing got in their way.

"Stop running!" Surge yelled. "It's over, you can't escape! Even if you've got your friends in an ambush somewhere ahead, you're too few!"

"We've gotten out of worse situations before!" Red retorted over his shoulder.

"I just called in air support, they'll keep you from leaving!" Surge shouted, patting the radio on his hip.

"We'll shoot them down!" Gold shot back with a manic laughter. He was not so sure they would, but he did not want Team Rocket to know that. Not yet. Maybe they could still figure out a way to escape.

"He's trying to provoke us into stopping and attacking," Emerald said from atop his Sceptile. "We can't fall for it!"

"Where's that girl, Birch?" Surge yelled, glee seeping into his voice. "I was hoping she'd be with you! I wanted to see her face when she found out _I was the one_ that gutted that sorry excuse for a boyfriend she had!"

"I knew it!" someone replied. Surge frowned and looked around, then realized that the voice had come from the voice on his hip. His mouth fell open as the _Rocket Falcon_, a heavy flying combat vehicle, appeared over the edge of the road next to him. Instead of the Team Rocket member he would have expected to see in the pilot seat, there was a young girl.

"Got ya," the voice on the radio said, followed by the thumping sound of missiles being launched. Surge scrambled forward, panicking as he tried to get out of the line of fire. This was certainly going to turn a bad day worse.


	3. Chapter 3

The side of the mountain was turned into an inferno as the missiles Sapphire had fired hit. Team Rocket members scattered, while tons of rock crashed down on and around them. Surge stumbled and was nearly crushed under a boulder, but one of his subordinates managed to use a Pokemon move to smash it before it hit.

"Stand still and die like a man!" Sapphire snarled over the radio.

"Do something!" Surge shouted to his men. Two of them broke off their pursuit of the dexholders and started firing attacks towards the flying vehicle. Sapphire tried to evade them but, not having been properly trained in flying the vehicle, she could only awkwardly slide it to the side, narrowly avoiding most of the attacks. With a wild grin, she launched another missile barrage.

"Why are we still running?" Emerald asked, looking back. "Sapphire is flying that ship, she's on our side!"

"I'm not sure she's on _any_ side right now," Red replied. "She probably wouldn't fire at us, but we shouldn't stick around to find out."

The dexholders kept running, Surge and his Team Rocket elite following them closely. Sapphire strafed across the side of the mountain, large plumes of smoke erupting from the craft as more and more attacks hit it, punching holes through the machinery. Red felt his stomach knot up as something exploded inside the vehicle, and then it slowly tilted to the side and started falling. It disappeared behind a cliff before exploding in a blinding flash.

"Sapphire!" Red gasped, nearly stopping. Gold grabbed his arm and pulled him back into motion.

"We can worry for her later," he said, looking uncharacteristically serious. "Right now, we have to _get out of here_."

They kept running, dodging attacks from behind all the way. One attack hit Gold, leaving a bloody slash. Another knocked Red's hat off, but did not result in any actual body damage. Surge was coming closer for every meter they ran, his remaining dozen of elite soldiers keeping up well. Normally, the dexholders would have turned and attacked, probably winning easily. But now, the odds were against them. Blue was far from in any shape to fight, and the six other dexholders were all tired or wounded, with Pokemon that had already fought multiple foes.

"Keep covering us," Red said to Gold and Emerald. He accelerated slightly, enough to catch up to Green and Yellow, who were still carrying the shocked Blue between them.

"You okay back there?" Green asked. Red bit his lower lip and shook his head.

"We _have_ to get out of here," he said. "We'll have to prepare our flying Pokemon, get out of here, take our chances with any electric attacks."

"If we do that, we're as good as dead."

"Got any better suggestions?" Red sighed, looking back. To his horror, Surge's Pokemon seemed as energetic as ever. Not only that, but he carried more than the recommended limit of six Pokemon in one party.

"We _fight_," Green told him. "The odds aren't great, but at least we'll go out doing what we do best."

"I agree!" Crystal called back from ahead of them. Red blinked, then nodded.

"We're almost at the top," he said. "Once we reach that, we'll turn and fight. Yellow, stay in the back so you're not knocked out. We need you to keep healing our Pokemon and keep an eye on Blue. The rest of us will try to shield you. Seconds later, they did reach the top. They stopped and spun around, Gold and Emerald quickly adapting to the plan.

Red felt as if he was about to throw up. This was no practice match, this was once again deadly serious. If they failed, they died. The only difference from earlier such situations was that this time people _had already died_. Good people. Friends.

Green lead the counterattack, going for Surge and his second-in-command. Yellow attacked from the rear of the dexholder group, while Blue sat leaning against her. Gold and Crystal were teamed up against half a dozen, while two others were attacking Emerald. That left Red facing four of the Rocket Commandos.

Green launched an attack that knocked the second-in-command of Surge's group off the edge of the cliff. He quickly paid for it, as Surge's Raichu slashed his leg so badly he could barely stand up. Gold and Crystal were fighting well, but they were pushed back more every second. Red knocked out one enemy, but was nearly overwhelmed as the remaining three launched a coordinated attack on him.

Behind them, Yellow helped Blue to her feet and started retreating up on the flat, round top of the mountain. The other dexholders followed, cuts and bruises accumulating as they fought. Emerald was knocked unconscious, but Gold lifted him and kept backing, Crystal covering him as he did.

Green hit the wall next to Gold with an attack, the resulting stone spray knocking one of the Team Rocket members out. While his attention was turned, Surge struck for his heart with Raichu's tail. Red reached out, desperate to stop it, and gave a howl of pain as it sliced off his pinky finger. Another attack nearly hit him, but something deflected it.

To his surprise, it turned out to be on of Blue's Pokemon. The older girl was still leaning on Yellow, but her eyes were fierce and her face grim. She attacked, joining the rest of them in the fight. They managed to stop Surge and his remaining men for a while, but they were still far more tired from having been outnumbered too long. Soon, the battle had moved entirely onto the flat platform on the top of the mountain.

Next surprise followed quickly, as a large Tropius, carrying Sapphire on its back, plunged into the group of Team Rocket members. It knocked one of them out, then flew off again, preparing for a SolarBeam attack. The tired dexholders turned the surprise to their advantage, pressing the attack against Surge. He dodged aside, before being forced to dive face-first to the ground as Tropius SolarBeam burnt the ground where he had been standing.

Surge got back on his feet. As Tropius came in for another attack, he let his Raichu launch a powerful Thunder attack at the flying Pokemon. It hit straight on, knocking it out. Sapphire, however, launched herself into a cartwheel over Tropius neck. She hit Surge in the chest, boots first, then lashed out with a hidden blade. She hit him in the throat with it, burying it deep. Surge gave a wheezing sound, then fell over backwards.

The remaining Team Rocket soldiers surrendered almost immediately. Yellow left Blue with Green and joined Crystal, carefully approaching Sapphire, who was curled up in a ball, sobbing loudly.

"Th-that was for Ruby," she whispered.

"Sapphire..."

"I did it. I managed to... to avenge him. But... it doesn't feel better."

A few meters away, Surge was coughing up blood, gasping for breath. He turned his head towards them, his eyes glassy but open.

"Foolish girl," he gasped. "You have no... idea what... what you have done. Without us... With no Team Rocket... The Association will win. Y-your selfishness has doomed the world."

"No!" Sapphire wailed, struggling out of Yellow's grip. "This is your fault! You did... You killed him! Th-this is justice."

"Justice?" Surge replied, his voice now barely a whisper. "Maybe. But... remember that justice, when the Association wins. Remember..."

With a final cough, Surge stopped moving. Swiftly, Yellow grabbed Sapphire by the arm and pulled her back into standing position again.

"Come on, Sapphire," she said. "Let's get out of here. We can catch up later, when you're feeling better. Alright?"

"Y-yeah," Sapphire mumbled, allowing Yellow to pull her along. Finally, the day was over, and the remaining dexholders could rest.


End file.
